iLuthier

Click on the images to go to the gallery.

Oliver Wadsworth is a British maker of lutes, archlutes, theorbos and renaissance and baroque guitars, and he has been making stringed instruments of one sort or another since 1985. His designs are usually based on existing instruments found in museums and private collections around the world. Iconographic sources are also used – especially for early and more obscure instruments where little physical evidence is available – though he’s happy to make copies of specific instruments..

In 1990 a growing interest in early plucked instruments led Oliver to the prestigious West Dean college, near Chichester, where he trained under the direction of Martin Haycock. The course at West Dean is a three year apprenticeship scheme in which the vast majority of course time is spent “at the bench” working on instruments commissioned by paying customers. This system puts great emphasis on the set-up and playability of instruments as well as quality of craftsmanship and is a sure fast way for makers to learn their craft in a professional environment. At West Dean emphasis is also placed on a knowledge of the history and evolution of the instruments concerned. The specialist techniques of repair and restoration are also covered in detail.

After graduating from West Dean, Wadsworth set up a workshop in Worcestershire making early plucked instruments, specialising in members of the lute family and early renaissance and baroque guitars.

Wadsworth Instruments will usually choose woods that are historically relevant for the particular instrument, however if the customer has a preference for particular woods to be used then this can be negotiated. The principal timbers used for bodies are ash (rippled), sycamore or maple (rippled), Canadian rock maple (bird’s eye), yew, plum, cherry (European or American), walnut (black) and cypress. In addition to these, ebony, rosewood and snakewood can be used if desired.

Fingerboards are made from ebony or plum and pegs are made from plum, maple, boxwood or ebony. All soundboards are European spruce, unless otherwise specified.

To check out Oliver Wadsworth’s lutes and guitars in the gallery, click here.

To find out more about him and his work as a lute, theorbo and guitar maker, click here.

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK 10 PCS (BWE432) US $9.59 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:06:23 PST   | Watch this Item

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK 10 PCS (BWE440) US $20.50 (9 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:09:41 PST   | Watch this Item

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK 2 PCS (BWE444) US $2.58 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:12:23 PST   | Watch this Item

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK 5 PCS (BWE459) US $16.29 (10 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:15:42 PST   | Watch this Item

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK (BWE448) US $5.50 (2 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:18:35 PST   | Watch this Item

EXOTIC WOOD - BLACK AND WHITE EBONY BLANK (BWE457) US $11.50 (6 Bids) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:21:58 PST   | Watch this Item

joel* Hawaiian Rare Black & White, Red Line Ebony Lama Pen Blanks US $4.79 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 10:16:28 PST   | Watch this Item

Macassar Ebony Exotic Hardwood Blanks #B3006 US $99.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 12:56:20 PST   | Watch this Item

NOTE: Click on the picture to see some of Oliver Wadsworth’s work.

A small collection of lute roses and medieval guitar rosettes by renown British instrument maker Oliver Wadsworth can be found in gallery section of this site. Each of the featured roses come from Oliver’s website which contains a wealth of information for lute makers.

Along with lutes, Wadsworth Instruments also make a range of archlutes, theorbos and renaissance and baroque guitars, and Oliver has been making stringed instruments of one sort or another since 1985. His designs are usually based on existing instruments found in museums and private collections around the world.

Iconographic sources are also used – especially for early and more obscure instruments where little physical evidence is available. Along with using historical references, Wadsworth Instruments is also happy to make copies of specific instruments for their clients.

We’ll be featuring some of Oliver’s amazing instrument making in the next day or so. In the meantime though, click here to check out Oliver Wadsworth’s lute roses and guitar rosettes which we have up in the gallery section. You’ll no doubt agree that the workmanship is superb.

If you want to find out more about Oliver Wadsworth and his work as a lute, theorbo and guitar maker, click here to go to his website.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAPLE ROSETTE WOOD INLAY 1piece WR-100 US $11.00 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 0:53:19 PST   | Watch this Item

LOVELY ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAPLE ROSETTE WOOD INLAIED 1piece WR-100 US $11.00 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 0:53:19 PST   | Watch this Item

CLASSICAL GUITAR WOOD INLAY ROSETTE,6pcs US $19.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 7:48:01 PST   | Watch this Item

10pcs,rosette,CLASSICAL GUITAR WOOD INLAY ROSETTE US $23.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 7:49:24 PST   | Watch this Item

CLASSICAL GUITAR WOOD INLAY ROSETTE,6pcs US $19.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 8:34:06 PST   | Watch this Item

CLASSICAL GUITAR WOOD INLAID ROSETTE beautiful guitar rosette quality US $0.01 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 10:40:44 PST   | Watch this Item

GUITAR ROSETTES, INLAY, SOUND HOLE beautiful guitar rosette high quality US $0.01 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 10:45:54 PST   | Watch this Item

Martin Guitar Kit installing Rosettes US $24.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 12:56:37 PST   | Watch this Item

We’ve added another couple of dozen smaller planes to the Plane Gallery. Not all of them are strictly for luthier work but they are all small and droolworthy nonetheless. Wherever possible we’ve tried to include the makers names with the planes but this can often be difficult to determine – especially with many of the older, user-made planes. If anyone out there knows who made what, and when, just drop us a line through our contact page. Likewise if you have some pictures of your own planes – or any tools for that matter – then drop us a line at iLuthier.com.

Anyway, for the time being if you want to check out the new arrivals, just click here and go to the gallery page.

Some time in the new year we will do a tutorial on making small planes – possibly even a set of four or five violin makers planes – for iLuthier visitors. What we might then do after that is sell them on eBay or give them away to some lucky iLuthier patron through some sort of competition or what have you. That’s if we can think of something to base a competition around. Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it though.

Come to think of it we might even do a couple of different tutorials on plane making, just to illustrate the different methods used to create these very useful tools.

Stay tuned for that.

Gorgeous Brass & Rosewood Large Violin Maker's Plane US $210.00 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 18:34:33 PST   | Watch this Item

Gorgeous Brass & Rosewood Large Violin Maker's Plane US $210.00 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 18:34:34 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE,FLAT SOLE, 18mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $37.90 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-27-2012 7:51:51 PST   | Watch this Item

Violin maker's Tools -- plane. US $39.99 Auction Ends: Tuesday Mar-06-2012 14:49:51 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE,ROUND SOLE, 6mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $32.90 Auction Ends: Saturday Mar-10-2012 8:57:55 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE,ROUND SOLE, 8mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $33.90 Auction Ends: Saturday Mar-10-2012 9:00:37 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE, ROUND SOLE, 12mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $34.90 Auction Ends: Saturday Mar-10-2012 9:05:04 PST   | Watch this Item

VIOLIN MAKER LUTHIER FINGER PLANE,FLAT SOLE, 8mm BLADE, FINE SCREW CAP MODEL US $33.90 Auction Ends: Saturday Mar-10-2012 9:13:51 PST   | Watch this Item

This is a simple but very effective tool to make. It might not look that flash and it’s certainly not gonna win any prizes for its beauty, but it’s very cheap to make and sure as heck works well.

To make it you will need four to six good quality hacksaw blades. Make sure they’re the flexible type and not too brittle (that’s why you need good quality blades and not those cheap Chinese ones).

Start by laying the first one on its side and then stack the rest of them on top, but alternating the direction of their teeth. This ensures that the tool will cut effectively in both directions.

Tape the ends of the stack with masking tape or, even better, duct tape if you have some of that lying around (and why wouldn’t you? It’s very handy stuff). Make sure you use enough tape so that your hands won’t be cut up by the teeth of the blades.

Once the ends are securely taped up you can try your brand new – and very low tech – tool out

To use your newly made flexible rasp, lightly flex it with your thumbs and scrape away at the wood using either a pushing or pulling motion. I find it’s much easier to use on the pull stroke rather than the push stroke, but each to their own. You’ll find that that this tool is especially good at cleaning up backs and bellies of violins and arch-tops prior to using more conventional scrapers.

INTO ETERNITY**SCATTERING OF ASHES(W/"MAKING OF" VIDEO/GUITAR TABS)**ENHANCED CD US $14.95 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 8:55:11 PST   | Watch this Item

ACOUSTIC GUITAR BRIDGE FOR MAKING OR LUTHIER REPAIR US $6.00 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 13:00:17 PST   | Watch this Item

A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears D'Ambrosio, US $21.80 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 13:45:33 PST   | Watch this Item

Making an Archtop Guitar Book US $39.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 17:24:23 PST   | Watch this Item

Making an Archtop Guitar Robert Benedetto US $54.63 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 18:01:19 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitarmaking by William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan D. Natelson (1994, Paperback) US $14.99 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 18:26:58 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitar Player Magazine May 2007 Making The Beatles Love US $5.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 21:09:11 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitar Soft Ice Cube Cubes Making Mold Molds + Stirrer Stick Party Soda Drinks US $5.11 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 21:34:38 PST   | Watch this Item

Fret dressing. You either love it or you hate it, but with the right tools you can fly through it in no time flat.

While some people like to have an all-purpose file for initial fret dressing I prefer to have a couple of single purpose ones – one for dressing the edges of the frets at 90 degrees and the other for beveling. I just find it easier, personally, to use two separate tools rather than one. The tools are slightly lighter than a combined one and I find they’re more comfortable in the hand and easier to use. Sure, you also have to use two separate files instead of one, but files are pretty cheap and they last twice as long than if you used the one file in your dressing tool.

The 90 degree fret file is easy enough to make – as are most of the tools we’ll feature here, actually. Basically you just need to fix a file at right angles to a block of wood. To do this I use a simple back “fence” so that the file will stay in line, then I just screw another smaller piece of wood to the fence which bears down on the surface of the file (see pic), clamping it down tightly. You don’t really need a lot of pressure but you do need to make sure that the file doesn’t move. If you find that it does move then all you need to do is screw another one, or perhaps two more, bits of wood to the fence.

I should add that it’s probably safer if you cut the tang of your file off and smooth everything over with an angle grinder. I haven’t done that with the file used in these pictures but I should. Having said that though I’ve not had an accident involving file tangs ever. Still, there’s always a first time!

It’s also important to make sure that you position the back fence so that the edge of the file overhangs the edge of your wood block – but not too much as it may mar the surface of the body or the the headstock as you dress your frets. About a 3/16″ to 1/4″ overhang is probably enough.

Similarly the bevel dressing tool is made in much the same way, with the exception being that you need to cut and plane one edge at around 35 degrees to get your angle. You can do this by hand or, if you’re fortunate enough to have one, on a saw bench with a tilting arbor. Once you’ve done that you make your back fence and hold-down pieces in the same manner.

LEFT: Dual purpose fret dressing tool made by Brian Calvert of the ever fabulous “Project Guitar” website, which you can find in our featured links section. This one has been made by cutting the block to shape, then cutting a groove in middle, where the two surfaces meet, and hammering a file into the slot.

To finish off you can glue some soft leather or felt cloth to the surface of your fret dressing tools where the tool rides across the top of the frets. I personally don’t bother though as any “wear” or scratching of the frets is virtually non existent. Not enough for me to worry about anyway. What I do use though is a piece of softer wood – usually mahogany – glued to the underside of the wood block.

So there you have it! A fret dressing tool – or tools – for a few dollars or so!

GUITAR FRET WIRE FRETWIRE FRETS (4 sets) US $15.35 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Wednesday Feb-22-2012 23:06:33 PST   | Watch this Item

22pc Acoustic guitar String fret Wire Medium/Midium New US $12.95 Auction Ends: Wednesday Feb-22-2012 23:50:49 PST   | Watch this Item

Fret Wire 6 feet of 2.4mm .095x047 Premium Jescar Nickel-Silver Fret Wire/Fret US $9.00 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 13:46:27 PST   | Watch this Item

Fender Strat Tele Guitar Fret Wire Vintage 24 US $8.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 20:04:47 PST   | Watch this Item

GENUINE FENDER STANDARD GUITAR FRET WIRE ~ 24PC. ~ NEW! US $7.95 Auction Ends: Thursday Feb-23-2012 20:46:33 PST   | Watch this Item

Fender Vintage Bass Fret Wire (24) US $12.99 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 1:39:03 PST   | Watch this Item

Bass Guitar Fretting Kit: 6ft JUMBO Fret Wire + Fretting Guide on CD! 12-04-01 US $16.99 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 11:02:44 PST   | Watch this Item

Guitar Fretting Kit: 6 feet of WIDE Fret Wire + Fretting Guide on CD! 12-03-01 US $13.99 Auction Ends: Friday Feb-24-2012 11:02:55 PST   | Watch this Item